Leukaemia Sufferer Strikes Gold Posted on August 25th
2:47pm UK, Thursday August 21, 2008
The man who has just become the Olympic 10km open water champion once suffered from leukaemia.
Olympic swimmer Maarten van der Weijden - a picture of health
Maarten van der Weijden’s Olympic gold was a “remarkable” achievement, according to a British expert in blood cancer.
The Dutchman, 27, was diagnosed with leukaemia - cancer of the bone marrow and white blood cells - in March 2001.
But, following a stem cell transplant, the 6ft 7ins swimmer returned to international competitive sport five years ago and crowned his achievement with a gold medal.
Professor Ghulam Mufti, professor of haemato-oncology at Kings College London, said the swimmer had achieved a great feat to return to the “super-peak” of health.
“This is remarkable. It’s absolutely fantastic - it’s amazing,” he said.
All blood cells are produced in bone marrow, a spongy material that is found inside bones.
He’s a fantastic advert for transplants. This really does show how successful transplantation is in this day and age. It’s really life-saving - it brings normality of life afterwards.
Professor Ghulam Mufti - Kings College London
It produces stem cells, which create infection-fighting white blood cells, along with red blood cells and platelets.
Acute leukaemia such as that suffered by van der Weijden means the bone marrow releases a large number of immature white blood cells.
These “blast cells” disrupt the normal balance of cells in the blood and make the patient more vulnerable to infection.
Side-effects from treatments can cause leukaemia patients problems but, Prof Mufti said, if the swimmer had suffered any, his sporting prowess showed he had overcome them.
The Dutchman overtook Welsh swimmer David Davies, who won silver, to take the open water title at the Shunyi Rowing Park in Beijing.